Social Justice Futures

The institute is a historically BIPOC space, an island within the Historically White Institution of UCB. The institute legacy and contemporary practice affirm and nurture current students, faculty, and staff of color, as well as white affiliates, who conduct interdisciplinary, community-engaged research on issues that matter to marginalized communities.

The institute provide space, stipends, community, and mentorship to primarily BIPOC graduate students. ISSI provides formal and informal training, research grants and fellowships, and most importantly, a space of belonging outside the university departments and schools.

ISSI includes seven centers that specialize in researching the structural factors that lead to health disparities, that bring the resources of the university to Native Americans to redress centuries of exploitative academic research, that focus on the right-wing, in a world where white nationalism and fascism are sharply on the rise, and more. Bringing together these disparate but connected centers, the institute fosters synergy and intersectional research.

The university has been providing only $350,000/year to ISSI, less than the deficit of University of California Police Department in 2016, as Professors Michael Burawoy and Celeste Langan noted in their commentary for the Berkeley Faculty Association. Yet despite the modest cost of the institute, the administration still selected it as the only institute to close, out of 50. Fortunately that decision has now been reversed. While our future remains uncertain, we have demonstrated our value and broad support!

We encourage you to learn about our history, our legacy, and the many activists and academics who we serve, and whose lives have been enriched by our presence on campus.